Social & Cultural Activities

The MCA 2017 will offer a special social/cultural program to meeting attendees. Activities may include music, museums, walking tours and culinary experiences, among others. More details to follow, closer to the meeting date.

Cecilia Quartet Concert at McGill's Pollack Hall

As part of a wider cultural programme, the conference has booked McGill’s Pollack Hall for a performance of the Cecilia Quartet, a prize-winning and up and coming string quartet (http://ceciliastringquartet.com).

July 25, 2017, 8pm - 10:30pm

Tickets are 10$.

Hailed for their “powerful” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “dauntingly perfect” (Berliner Zeitung) performances, the CSQ perform for leading presenters in North America and Europe. Past engagements include performances at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, Northwestern University in Illinois, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Their live concert recordings have been broadcast on more than a dozen international public radio networks, including Australia (ABC Classical FM), Canada (CBC/SRC), the United States (WQXR), England (BBC Radio 3), and Germany (DeutschlandRadio). Prize-winners at several international competitions, including Osaka (2008) and Bordeaux (2010), they were awarded First Prize at the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), where they also won the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work.

“Gender and Mathematics”

Panel Discussion and Lunch

12:45 - 14:15, Thursday July 27, 2017.

Atrium, Trottier Building, McGill University, Montreal

The panel will take place during the Mathematical Congress of the Americas in Montreal. It will discuss diversity issues and the gender gap in academia, more specifically, in science. It is organized by the Network of Women Mathematicians in Latin America and the Carribbean and CWM and the Canadian Mathematical Society.

Panelists:

Heather Metcalf is Director of Research and Analysis for the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) where she leads empirical work on gender and the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Dr. Metcalf has research, policy, and programmatic expertise on myriad topics in STEM, such as bias, educational and workplace cultures, harassment and discrimination, organisational and systemic change, recruitment and retention, mentoring, sense of fit, structural and cultural barriers and work-life integration, among others. She has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and computer science from the Clarion University of Pennsylvania and holds master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and gender studies from the University of Arizona. Dr. Metcalf earned her doctorate from the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, where she studied higher education science and technology policy. Dr. Metcalf’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. She also holds a patent on unconscious bias training materials, which teach researchers and practitioners to build equity into their daily thought and work. She has appeared to provide her expertise on gender issues in science on Public Radio International, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Scientific American.

Andrei Cimpian is Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University, where he directs the Cognitive Development Lab. One of Dr. Cimpian’s main areas of expertise is academic achievement and motivation. Among other topics, he has investigated gender stereotypes, gender gaps in achievement and representation, people’s beliefs about ability and talent, and the influence of praise and criticism on children’s achievement. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. Dr. Cimpian’s research has been funded by several agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, and has been published in some of the top journals in psychology and education. Media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Economist have reported on his work.

Contact: Natalia GarciaColin garciacolin.natalia@googlemail.com

MathAmaze Tournament

July 24-28, Exhibit Level, Centre Mont Royal

From July 24-28, 2017, you are invited to participate in the MathAmaze tournament that will take place during the Mathematical Congress of the Americas (MCA). Up to 10 opponents will play simultaneously. Each player must try to go fast in answering mathematical questions to score as many points as possible - before the time runs out. Each correct answer enables one to move forward on the board- the further you want to go, the harder the question and the more points you get! What will be your strategy? MathAmaze is a free online interactive multimedia game developed by SMAC. Its goal is to strengthen the interest of kids, teenagers and the public for mathematics by playing a fun computer game.